


That Was You?

by karrienico



Category: Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, slight angst, they’re oblivious idiots as always, yes this is based off a meme what about it?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-28 18:04:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17187779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrienico/pseuds/karrienico
Summary: “I didn’t know how to deal with my crush, so I wrote her a note telling her to get out of my school.”“That was you?”





	1. Chapter 1

"Guys, I have to tell you something."

Everyone turned to look at Nico curiously. 

Nico sighed and closed her eyes, trying to build up the courage to say what she wanted to say. "I'm... bi."

Everyone's eyes lit up, especially Karolina's. Partly because she was proud of her for coming out, and partly because she knew that actually gave her a chance with her long time crush.

"Oh my gosh, Nico! That's awesome!" Gert exclaimed.

They both gave each other a high five. It makes sense that Gert would be that excited considering she had also come out as bisexual not too long ago.

"Congratulations, Nico," Karolina said with a kind smile. 

Nico returned her smile. "Thanks, Karrie."

Karolina felt her face heat up and she looked down at her lap. Now that she knew Nico was actually capable of being attracted to her, she felt her crush getting even stronger. She still doubted that would ever happen, but at least it was in the realm of possibility.

Nico then started to get bombarded with questions.

"Have you ever dated a girl?" Molly asked her.

Nico shook her head. "No, not yet."

"Then how do you know?" Chase asked, before getting an elbow to the ribs by Gert, his girlfriend. "Hey! What was that for?"

"She doesn't need to have experience with girls to know that she likes them. That's ignorant. Nobody questions if straight people are actually straight if they don't have experience with the opposite sex."

"Sorry," Chase muttered and rubbed the spot where he had been jabbed. "I didn't mean it like that."

"How long have you known?" Alex asked. 

Nico rested her cheek on her hand and looked up, trying to recount all the red flags she had experienced her whole life. "Hmm... I think I've known since the first grade."

Alex's eyes widened. "Wow, really?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah. That was when the first red flag happened. There was this girl in my class that I had a crush on. At first I thought I just really admired her or wanted to be her friend, but eventually I realized I wanted to hold her hand.... and stuff." She gradually got quieter as she realized how soft she sounded. It didn't fit with her intimidating exterior, which Nico didn't like.

"Awww," Molly cooed and brought her hands up to her cheeks. 

Nico narrowed her eyes at her. "Stop, I'm not saying anything else."

"Oh, come on," Karolina said and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Tell us more about your little crush," she encouraged, wanting to find out as much as possible so she could figure out what Nico's type was and see if she matched it at all. Which was dumb since her type in first grade was probably completely different than her type now. But Karolina was desperate for anything. 

Nico sighed longly and took a swig of her latte. "Fine. I don't remember much, but she had really pretty blonde hair and blue eyes and she was really sweet. She always shared her supplies with me because I always lost mine."

"Huh... sounds familiar," Gert teased, looking between Nico and Karolina. It did make sense, since Karolina's appearance and personality matched, and Nico was constantly "borrowing" pencils from her because Karolina always brought plenty of extras just for her.

Nico laughed. "Yeah, right. What are the odds of that? But anyway..." Nico laughed again and hid her face in her hands. "It's so stupid. I had no idea how to deal with my crush on her, because at the time I didn't even know it was a thing for girls to like girls, so I wrote her a note that said 'get out of my school' and put it on her desk when she wasn't looking."

Everybody bursted out laughing. Except Karolina, who instead starting choking on her scone. Once everyone's laughter finally died down and stopped drowning out her coughing, they all looked at her in slight concern.

Nico patted her firmly on the back. "You okay?" She asked amusedly, assuming she had been choking on a laugh.

"Tha..." She coughed a few more times, "That was _you?_ "

Nico's smile slowly turned into a confused frown. "Huh?"

Karolina took a drink of her water, and her coughing finally died down. "It was you that wrote that to me?"

Nico's look of confusion started to turn into one of realization. "Wait... You're telling me that _you_ got that note?"

Karolina nodded with wide eyes. She remembered being so confused and hurt, thinking that whoever wrote it hated her and she desperately tried to convince her parents to let her go to a different school. But this entire time it had been her best friend who she had a crush on that apparently had a crush on her as well. 

At least Karolina knew she was Nico's type now. Exactly her type.

"... What is happening right now?" Gert asked, and Karolina had almost forgotten that anyone else besides her and Nico were there.

"That is so crazy!" Molly said. 

"Yeah..." Nico replied, not taking her eyes off of Karolina, "It is."

"Oh, c'mon, she's joking."

Karolina whipped her head back to look at Chase. "I'm not joking! I'm serious."

"That is so romantic," Gert teased. 

"No," Nico asserted almost immediately, "It's not. It was in the first grade. I obviously don't have a crush on you anymore, Karrie, so don't worry. That would be weird."

Karolina looked back at her, trying to hide the hurt in her eyes. Once she had gotten over her initial shock, she had hope that maybe Nico still felt the same way. But with how quick Nico was to deny that, and with how 'weird' she thought it would be, Karolina knew now that it was just a dumb first grade crush that wasn't bound to go anywhere.

"Y-yeah! Of course. I didn't think you would."

Nico just nodded with an awkward smile, clearly uncomfortable with that newfound fact about her life.

"Um, anyway, I have a ton of homework I have to do. I'll see you guys tomorrow at school." Karolina quickly gathered up her belongings, and made a beeline out of the coffee shop, feeling tears start to form on her waterline.

All her friends watched her leave with blank expressions, no longer finding the situation funny. 

Nico slumped in her chair. "Great. Now I creeped her out. I told you guys I didn't wanna talk about it!"

Gert and Molly stared at her, their expressions saying 'are you fucking stupid'? Meanwhile, Chase and Alex were just as oblivious as she was.

Nico's eyebrows raised. "... What?"

"You really think the reason she stormed out was because she's creeped out?" Gert questioned. 

"Well... Yeah. Why else would she storm out?"

"Because she likes you!" Molly yelled loudly, turning a few heads from other tables around them.

"What?" Nico, Chase, and Alex all asked at the same time. 

"You all are so oblivious if you can't see it," Gert tells them, "She's so loud about it."

"But you didn't hear from us," Molly says, pulling her beanie down to hide her face as if Karolina was still there and wouldn't be able to see her if she was.

"Yeah," Gert agrees, "She would kill us if she knew that we told you. We just didn't want you to get the wrong idea."

"Huh, well that explains why she wasn't into me when I pursued her last year," Chase says, making everyone groan. "I'm kidding!"

Nico just gazed down at the table with her arms crossed, basically looking through it, and she shook her head quickly. "No... She doesn't like me. It's... It's Karolina! She's my best friend! I would know, right?"

"Apparently not," Gert muttered. 

"I... I need to go." Nico left just as quickly as Karolina had while everyone watched silently again, not knowing what to do or say.

Nico didn't even know where she was going. She just knew she needed to be alone so she could think. She wasn't sure if she should trust Gert and Molly's judgement over her own. She looked back at all her interactions with Karolina, trying to figure out if Karolina's demeanor with any of them could possibly suggest that she did like her. She did sneak small glances at her a lot, and she was always willing to tag along with Nico to do literally anything. The phrase 'well, if Nico's in then so am I' came out of her mouth quite often. 

_'Maybe...'_ Nico thought. 

Suddenly, she caught eye of someone sitting in their car. It was Karolina. She hadn't left yet, and the culprit was the tears she was furiously wiping from her face. She was clearly trying to calm herself down so she would be okay enough to drive, but it didn't seem to be working. Nico felt worry surge through her, and she made a move to go comfort her, but Karolina finally gave up trying to stop her tears and reversed out of her parking spot, and sped out of the lot.

"Shit," Nico cursed and immediately pulled out her phone and texted her, casually telling her to let her know when she got home as they always did to each other. 

The sight of her best friend in such a fragile state not only broke her heart, but made her come to a realization.

Karolina did in fact like her. And Nico was fairly certain that she liked her back.


	2. chapter 2

Karolina stared at the text she received from Nico, telling her to let her know when she got home. She couldn't help but smile through her teary eyes. Even though Nico didn't express her feelings much, it was still clear through those little things that she cared a great deal. It's just too bad she would never care for Karolina in the way that Karolina cared for her.

She texted her back to let her know she made it home safely, and made her way inside her house. Thankfully both of her parents were working, so she could let her tears fall freely instead of hiding them away.

She immediately went up into her room, and walked over to her head-dresser and started digging through the drawer in it. She sifted through an abundance of different things, such as pictures, old childhood drawings, pens and pencils, and finally, at the very bottom, she found what she was looking for. 

It was a small, messily ripped off piece of paper with the words 'get out of my school' on it. She had always kept it because she had taken more offense than she probably should've, and always thought she would eventually figure out who wrote it if she kept it as evidence. Of course she got over it about a year later, but she had completely forgotten it was in her drawer, much less existed, until today.

She looked at it, and reached out to trace over the lettering. It actually looked a bit like Nico's current handwriting, but a sloppy version of it. Karolina took note of how every letter was capitalized, making the tone of the note even angrier. Nico must have been so overwhelmed that she had treated her crush the way a little boy would, with aggression. Karolina had lost count of how many times her mother told her 'he's mean to you because he likes you!' when she would complain about a boy in her elementary school years. But her mom never said that when Karolina would complain about the girl with the black hair randomly being mean to her. 

She grabbed one of the yearbooks on her shelfs, and started flipping through it until she found the page that had her class on it. And there she was. Nico Minoru. How had she not remembered? Maybe because Nico had went to a different elementary school after first grade, and she looked completely different now that she picked up a goth sense of style.

Karolina caught eye of another picture. It was supposed to be an innocent class picture, but you could see Karolina and Nico giving one another dirty glances. She suddenly remembered that day. They were fighting about who got to stand where. She couldn't help but chuckle. Her relationship with Nico back then was a strange one. She was either really nice to her, usually because Karolina shared her school supplies with her, or she was rude for no reason.

But now she knew the reason.

She put the note in between the pages, using it as a makeshift bookmark, and put the yearbook back on the shelf. 

Her tears had dried by then, but Nico's words continued to echo in her head. 

Why did this this bother her so much? She knew she liked Nico, but not _this_ much. Not to the point where she'd feel absolutely heartbroken if Nico indirectly rejected her. 

Karolina sat down on her bed, brought her knees up to her chest, and buried her face in her arms. "What are you doing to me, Nico?" 

—

Karolina was very withdrawn the next day at school. She knew this, but she couldn't bring herself to hide it. Not until she got approached by Gert.

"Hey, Karolina? Can I talk to you?"

Karolina nodded, and let Gert drag her to a less crowded part of the hallway. "What's up?"

"You have to tell Nico about your feelings for her," Gert stated bluntly, not even bothering to get confirmation that Karolina liked Nico in the first place.

"W-what?" How did she know? Karolina hadn't told anyone.

"Don't play dumb, K, it's so obvious."

Karolina opened her mouth to deny it, but no words came out, causing Gert to smirk a little bit. "E-Even if that was true, why would I have to tell her?"

"Because, she thinks the reason you stormed out of Timely yesterday was because you were weirded out by her previous crush on you."

Karolina's eyes widened. Nico really thought that? She wasn't sure what Nico was going to think, but it definitely wasn't that. Though, Karolina didn't really think about it at the time. She was too upset.

"What?" 

Gert nodded. "I tried to explain to her, but I don't think she completely believed me." Karolina narrowed her eyes at her. "Um, but... Molly told her most of it... And the damage was kinda already done, so... I might've... added to that conversation?"

"Seriously? That's just amazing. Now it's Nico who's gonna be weirded out by _me_." Could this week get any worse?

"Don't say that. Nico's not like that."

Karolina just shrugs and looks ahead instead of directly at Gert. "I don't blame her. We're best friends. It would be weird. Her words."

Gert looked at her in sympathy, not knowing what to say. 

"Anyway, I have to go to class." One of the classes she had with Nico, which she was not looking forward to.

Gert said nothing as she watched Karolina disappear in a sea of students down the hall. 

Nico was already sitting in her assigned seat when Karolina walked in. She gave her a small smile, which Karolina returned, but it didn't reach her eyes, and Nico must've noticed considering her brow furrowed in slight concern.

Karolina sat in her seat which was right in front of Nico's. She felt Nico tap her shoulder, and she turned her head to look at her.

"Hey, you okay?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, fine." 

Nico didn't seem convinced, and Karolina didn't have the energy to properly convince her, so she just turned back around and stared blankly at the white board.

As the lecture started and went on for about twenty minutes, Karolina only retained about a fourth of the information. She was too distracted, thinking about that note written by the very person sitting right behind her.

As if fate would have it, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to find Nico handing her a piece of paper. She took it hesitantly and opened it under her desk so the teacher wouldn't see. 

_Get out of my school_

Karolina stared at it for a whole minute, and felt angry tears well up in her eyes. Now Nico was rubbing it in her face since she now knew that Karolina liked her, thanks to Gert and Molly. 

She turned her head again to look at Nico, who was smiling at her. Until she saw the angry look in Karolina's eyes, turning her smile into a frown. Karolina crumpled it up and stuffed it in her pocket. She would throw it away as soon as class let out.

When it did, Karolina quickly got up and made her way angrily to the trash can. 

"Wait, Karrie!" She felt someone grasp her wrist. 

"... Please let me go."

"Can we talk?"

Nico took Karolina's utter silence as a yes, and she gently dragged her away and into a supply closet so they could be away from everybody.

The note was still tightly clutched in Karolina's fist.

And finally, she  spoke. "Wh... Why are you doing this to me?"

Nico's heart practically shattered when her voice cracked. 

"What do you mean?" Nico asked. 

"You're teasing me! I know Gert and Molly told you that I like you, which is true, but that doesn't mean that you can rub it in my face, okay?! Did you know that I cried practically all day yesterday because I got my hopes up thinking maybe you still liked me, just to find out you didn't and probably never would!" Karolina was now crying again. Whether they were sad or angry tears, she didn't know. "It's not fair!"

Nico looked absolutely horrified. That's what Karolina thought she was doing?

"Hey, hey, hey," she stepped closer and put her hands on Karolina's shoulders. "Calm down. It's okay."

"No, it's not... This is exactly why I didn't want anyone to know how I feel about you."

"Karrie!" Nico asserted, "Stop! Do you really think for a second that I would tease you about that? Do you really think I would do something that horrible to my best friend?"

Karolina sniffled and looked at her through her eyelashes. "I... I don't know. There's no other explanation for why you would do that..."

"Well, there's one other thing."

Karolina was confused. "What?"

"Just think about it. In first grade, I wrote you a note telling you to get out of my school because I had a crush on you. So if I did that again, that can only mean...?"

Karolina's eyes slowly but surely widened. "Wait... You don't mean...?"

Nico raised her eyebrows, encouraging her to continue.

"You... Have a crush? On me?" Karolina questioned doubtfully as she pointed to herself. 

"Yes," Nico breathed, and stepped even closer than she already was. Their faces were now only inches apart. 

Karolina finally got over her bewilderment, and started to lean down. "Is this okay?" She asked, just above a whisper.

Nico smiled at her. "It's more than okay."

And then, they were kissing. In a supply closet. Their location left a lot to be desired, but neither of them cared or even remembered as they were so lost in each other's lips. Nico brought one of her hands to the back of Karolina's head to deepen the kiss and Karolina had both of her hands on the nape of Nico's neck. It was so passionate, and so full of love, like they had both been itching to do that for a very long time.

After what felt like several minutes, they pulled away.

"Wow," Nico whispered.

"Agreed."

Out of nowhere, Nico started to laugh. "Man, can you believe a stupid note finally brought us together?"

Karolina chuckled and looked down at her guiltily. "God, I feel so terrible for accusing you of playing with my feelings for you. I'm not sure why I ever thought you would do that."

Nico rubbed small circles on her back. "It's okay. I realize now maybe the note thing wasn't the most obvious way in the world to let you know that I still like you."

"Yeah...  But, it was really cute."

Nico huffed. "It's not cute... It was supposed to be funny. Nothing more."

Karolina playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh, will you just admit that you're adorable already?"

"No, you're the adorable one, and I'm the badass one. That's how our whole dynamic works."

Karolina giggled. "Oh is it now? How do you know? We've been together for literally five minutes. And we're not even really together yet."

"Because we've been friends for years. And we'll probably be exactly the same as we were, except we'll kiss each other... and other things." Nico visibly got shy towards the end, which was quite a rare sight.

"I really like the sound of that... Dating your best friend sounds like the best."

"Yeah," Nico agreed, "It will be."

They leaned in to kiss again, but were interrupted by the door flying open, revealing a surprised and angry janitor. "Get out of my closet!"

They speed walked away after he rudely kicked them out. 

"So, do you think he had a crush on at least one of us?" Karolina teased.

Nico glared at her. "You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?"

"Actually, he verbally said it instead of writing it on a piece of paper, so, I think we're good."

Nico pushed her softly. "You're such an ass. But um... After you get out of my school, and I get out of your school, do you maybe wanna go out and get something to eat?"

Karolina couldn't help but laugh at her wording that would sound incredibly weird to anyone else but them. 

"And by that I meant, like... after school," Nico added awkwardly. 

Karolina laughed, "Yeah, I got that. And that sounds amazing."

"Great, so, I'll see you after school," Nico said.

"You too."

Nico walked away to her class that she was currently late to from their little make out session in the closet. 

Karolina pulled the crumpled note out of her pocket, and traced over the handwriting like she did with the old one. 

It was not one of the many scenarios Karolina had envisioned that would bring her and Nico together, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end!! so idk how I managed to turn a funny meme into... this... but um I hope you could somehow take it seriously shsjdjd
> 
> twitter: @karrienico

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a tumblr post and I thought about this for a while and I finally got around to writing it, hope you liked it! There will be another chapter to tie it up that I will post soon.
> 
> twitter: @karrienico


End file.
